Doctor provides hope for youth who have left polygamy
 
Reported by: Brent Hunsaker
ABC 4 News
Diversity Foundation

SOUTH JORDAN, Utah (ABC 4 News) -- Doctor Dan Fischer presides over a multimillion dollar dental company as well as a foundation that spends a portion of that money. Ultradent of South Jordan makes money and the Diversity Foundation spends money. And how it spends money has earned Dr. Fisher both admiration and anger.

Through the foundation, Dr. Fischer helps "lost boys." These are young men who have been kicked out of the FLDS polygamist community. Dr. Fischer says these boys have lost everything – friends, family, and community – and are ill prepared to face the outside world. He has helped them in various ways over the years, but his primary goal remains the same: help them get an education. "That's been the most important message and mission of the diversity foundation ... helping them get knowledge. Knowledge is power."

He has seen that power change lives. Mark Barlow left Colorado City and joined the military. He served one tour in Kuwait and Iraq. The military now pays for most of his school bills while attending Weber State, but Dr. Fischer still helps with the books. Mark said, "You want to run as far away as possible. You want to completely leave your past behind and pretend you're someone else. And to see someone who's able to stand up proudly and say, 'I’m from the FLDS community but it is not who I am. This is who I am and you can judge me on my own merits.' That's a powerful thing."

Dr. Fischer left the FLDS in the 90’s after a confrontation with Warren Jeffs. But he says that confrontation wasn’t the reason for his leaving, only the end of a long process. For some time Doctor Fischer had doubted the things he’d been taught growing up in the FLDS religion. Jeffs was merely the final straw.

By the numbers, the Diversity Foundation has helped 13 students graduate from high school and 51 others pass their general educational development (GED) test. Now it’s supporting 37 students in college. And the foundation is helping more than boys. Just over half (19) of its college students are young women who have also been kicked out or left on their own.

Martha Barlow is one of those young women. She left Colorado City as a teenager with a 5th grade education. Now she’s finishing up her associate’s degree at Weber State and wants to get a bachelor’s in psychology. "Dr. Fischer changed my life," she said. "I have never felt so liberated in my life. Every time I finish a semester, I feel like I have something that no one can take away from me."

Martha remembers trying to explain to a brother who was still in the polygamist group why she was so excited to be going back to school. "We're sitting on a tailgate and I was like, 'I’m in college!’ I was really proud of that. I was doing something. And he said, ‘Knowledge is the devil's distraction.’ That's what he said to me. That's the last time I remember seeing him."

Dr. Fischer says it wasn’t always that way and blames Warren Jeffs and his lieutenants. He says those same leaders launched a smear campaign against him as if he, Dr. Fischer, were the cause of all their woes. "I don’t hate them for it. In fact, I don’t even hate Warren Jeffs. I pity him."

The foundation is expanding the number of young people it’s assisting. But Dr. Fischer holds out hope that someday it will no longer be need. "We would love to see the lost boys program become obsolete as parents took back their parental responsibilities, embraced their sons and daughters and became families again." He has become a surrogate for those children abandoned by their families. "In today's world, even for the young man or young lady who is 18 or above and has college ahead of them, without help from family it can be difficult. And that's an opportunity for family to come together to help get each other educated. I would love to see this program reduced as they stepped into the driver's seat."

But until that happens, he says the foundation will continue. "I do believe the more success stories are generated, the more it can give others hope to make that migration." To FLDS leaders, that is a dangerous idea from an even more dangerous man.
 
ABC4.com
Originally broadcast January 18, 2009
 
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